SARASOTA, Fla. — Bradenton Police Sergeant Lee Cosens died on April 16 after battling metastatic kidney cancer. Now, his remains will be used to help protect our environment.
His widow Amy and their 7- and 8-year-old daughters mixed his cremated remains to form a reef ball that will be dropped in the middle of the ocean on Friday.
The non-profit Eternal Reefs offers a green burial option where someone’s final resting place is on the sea floor as part of an artificial reef system reviving marine life in the Gulf. It can help improve the ecosystem in a matter of months. According to the organization, engineered reef balls have been rebuilding the dwindling natural coral reef systems off the country's coastlines since 1998.
Cosens' family mixed his remains with concrete and decorated the ball. On Sunday, they will see the completed memorial for the first time, and there will be special military honors for the United States Army Veteran.
Cosens died one day before his 40th birthday. A month before, he was still working on Bradenton’s marine unit, out on the Florida waters he loved. On Monday, his family will go out on a boat, alongside a police escort, to place his eternal reef ball at Silvertooth Reef.